Hillary with a Staight Face

I assume Hillary Clinton had a straight face when declaring that the two US attorney firings were totally different situations. Well, she's right about that.

Her husband fired them all some 93 of them, a month or so after his inauguration. He or Hillary might have had Web Hubbell order Janet Reno to do so. This was an unprecedented move, in spite of Hilary's implication to the contrary. George W. Bush, or Alberto Gonzales or someone else in the administration, waited until six years had passed since the Bush inauguration to fire only eight. I understand that this was only after a year or two of deliberation over the wisdom, political or otherwise, of doing so.

There are more differences, the Whitewater scandal was being investigated, FOB's were in hot water with a couple of the attorneys, and to fire them all was to remove suspicion from firing just the ones prosecuting those cases.

I suppose Gonzales will be thrown to the wolves as was Rumsfeld. This is yet another example of the Bush White House being unwilling, or unable, to play hardball with the democrats. Perhaps Gonzales deserves criticism for handling the situation clumsily. Perhaps he deserves to be fired for not being able to stand up to the congressional bullies screaming about this non-existent scandal. But George Bush himself is no good at standing up against Congress or standing up for himself.

For Hillary to imply that Bill's firing the attorneys was "business as usual" when it hadn't even been done by Nixon is the height of hypocritical nonsense.

Another Inconvenient Truth for Gore

Well, maybe the sun has a little something to do with it after all. NASA now says :

"Long-term climate records are a key to understanding how Earth's climate changed in the past and how it may change in the future. Direct measurements of light energy emitted by the sun, taken by satellites and other modern scientific techniques, suggest variations in the sun's activity influence Earth's long-term climate. However, there were no measured climate records of this type until the relatively recent scientific past. "

This presents a somewhat "inconvenient truth" to some of our esteemed Global Warming Alarmists (GWA), committed to the proposition that the carbon footprint of mankind is the main if not sole contributing factor to the predicted gloom of climate change.

Maybe winning the Oscar has turned his head. After living as a world-wide celebrity for the past few months - movie star, Oscar winner, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and Man-about-Town, it must be hard to remind one's self to be a regular guy and play by the rules. After demanding special treatment from the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works investigating global warming, Al Gore now feels that the special privileges granted to him need not apply after all.

First he demanded and received permission to present an unprecedented 30 minute opening statement. Then, the usual 48-hour presubmission rules, designed to grant Senate committee members time to go over upcoming testimony, and prepare questions, was waived in favor or Gore's requested 24-hour presubmission time. Now it seems the 24-hours have lapsed with no testimony submitted. Wonder why? Could it be that our super-intelligent former VP was not prepared? Nah. This is the guy that invented the internet, after all. He surely has his opening comment speech prepared, polished and perfected. Could it be that he didn't want to tip his hand and let committee members have time to ask him some difficult questions, especially in light of the above mentioned NASA statement? Looks like it.

Al might be well versed in talking the global warming talk, (although he doesn't like walking the global warming walk) but he's not a scientist, after all, much less an expert in the fields of climatology, astronomy, solar whatever-ology, and any other -ologies pertaining to the study of global warming. He might not fare well going toe-to-toe with an expert from NASA.

It certainly doesn't bode well for Gore having the public find out that in additon to his energy-gulping mansion Gore now holds himself well above regulations required of others testifying before Senate committees.

Photo courtesy- NASA/JPL-Caltech

A Dog's Life

He came into our lives in October, 1996, a scrawny, long-legged bundle of energy, about to enter his third, fourth or fifth life. If cats are said to have nine lives, surely dogs must have more than one. This dog, rescued from a Washington, DC animal shelter, started his official "second" life when our daughter took him home to her small apartment already occupied by two cats. When the cats refused to accept his still puppy-like ways, he started his "third" life in Ohio with us.

He must have thought that he was in heaven. A large fenced back yard, another dog to play with, a nice house, warm in winter, and cool in summer, and two more people who would grow to love him like no other dog. Our dog at the time, Jesse James, was five years old, and somewhat set in her ways, but she accepted Kirby and the two of them chased around the house and yard with wild abandon.

How to describe Kirby? Part terrier, part hound, deep chested, tiny waist, long, skinny legs. Sparse fur which grew in a coarse-looking manner, but was surprisingly soft to the touch. Mostly white, with a few large tan spots, black spots on his pink skin, big ears, long tail, with one eye rimmed in black which made it appear larger than the other. He was definitely an original. He always drew attention wherever he went. "What kind of dog is that?" was heard countless times. Our standard answer was "He's a Kirby," a true one and only.

He had the mannerisms of Tramp, from the Disney movie, spunky, and boyish to the nth degree. His favorite pastime was chasing tennis balls, a not unusual activity for dogs, but he did it in his own way. When my husband mowed the lawn, he would throw the tennis ball for Kirby, who would run at speed to fetch it. He was smart enough to drop the ball right in the path of the mower to insure that it would be thrown again immediately. This made lawn mowing take a little more time, but he never tired of chasing the ball during the whole hour and a half, and he would gladly sacrifice a torn claw to retrieve the ball after one bounce.

In his first life, Kirby must have known love and attention. He came to the animal shelter totally housetrained, understanding the word "NO" and quickly learned the boundaries of our unfenced front yard. He was obedient, always came to us when called, and although a little destructive in the beginning, quickly learned what he was allowed and not allowed to chew on. He only strayed once, during a heavy snowstorm when he wandered between two neighboring houses and found himself on the street behind us, slightly disoriented. We were outside with him shoveling snow and when we missed him, we scattered and luckily found him right away.

When Jesse James died, we waited a year to get another dog. The new one was Little Dixie, a Maltese puppy. Kirby's gentle nature let him adopt her and put up with her chewing on his heels, ears, and tail. In spite of the great difference in their sizes, the two of them played and chased each other around the house. His only fault was in not sharing toys with her. He would carry his stash of toys upstairs, one by one, and hide them from her in a guest bedroom. If we bought tiny toys for her and big toys for him, he learned to leave the tiny ones alone, but he never let her play with any of his.

We have always wondered what his early life was like. When our daughter first adopted him, he was filthy, with grease stains on his back. He had obviously been living on the streets for a while. I'm sure he had some unpleasant memories but he kept them to himself. His only outward fear was of thunder and fireworks, a common fear for dogs. He was boarded over one fourth of July weekend while we were back in DC visiting our daughter. When we returned, the kennel owners told us that he had escaped the kennel and they had no idea where he was. We were horrified and spent two days with the help of friends searching for him. When we finally got a phone call telling us that he was found, we were so relieved. During his flight, probably caused by his panic at the sound of fireworks nearby, he was clever enough to go up to the front door of a house where the lights were on. He looked in the screen door and the people inside finally saw him and were kind enough to give him food and water. He stayed on their porch overnight and they finally let him inside to rest. I must have walked and driven right by that house several times while I was searching for him never knowing he was safe inside. Those wonderful people called the animal shelter who had already been notified by the kennel. They put two and two together and that's how Kirby was rescued yet again. He sat on my lap during the twenty minute ride home and cried the whole time, as if trying to tell me about his frightening adventure.

That was the last time he was boarded at that place. They never told me how he managed to get out, if they even knew. He definitely didn't like confinement, maybe due to his memory of being at the animal shelter in DC. When we found a reliable indoor kennel, with several doors between the boarding area and the outside, we were lucky that the kennel mistress developed a deep connection with Kirby. He was only in a cage at night, when the kennel staff left for the day. The rest of the time, he was allowed in the staff room, the office, the supply room, wherever he wasn't in the way. They gave us a photo of him curled up in an empty kitty litter box in their storeroom. Another time, he slept wrapped around their fax machine, on the counter in the office. But eventually, as he got older, his extreme fear of being caged was more than he could bear. During his last kenneling, he destroyed the heavy stainless steel kennel door, and became so distraught that the kennel mistress had the vet in the facility examine him and sedate him because his life was in danger.

Fortunately, he survived the ordeal and we decided never to kennel him again. We found "Ark Angels", a pet sitting service that was a loving alternative for the times we had to leave town for a few days. Wonderful neighbors filled in when family emergencies prevented our arranging for pet sitters. Our DC daughter eventually moved to our town and Kirby was reunited with his original "Mommy" rescuer. Although he stayed at our house, the two of them had a special bond, evidenced by the way he "talked" to her whenever she came to our house.

He also "talked" to my sister from New York. She loved Kirby as if he were her own. And the two of them would sing "You are My Sunshine". He would relish the opportunity to sleep in bed with her whenever she spent the night with us.

Yesterday, unquestionably the hardest day of our life, we had our dear Kirby put down. After a mercifully short illness, heart failure, he was unable to do much more than lift his head. He refused medication after a few days and we stopped forcing the pills on him. We spent his last few days giving him small bits of steak, scrambled eggs, and more steak. Our dedicated vet and his wife spent a generous amount of time with us and we finally left Kirby there, secure in the knowlege that he was in no pain and would never have any more fears. Oddly enough, we had a thunderstorm soon after we arrived home. We knew that Kirby was not bothered by the thunder claps. It was the only bright thing in the whole dark, dismal day.

I know the pain we feel will ease, but there will always be our deep, abiding love for the very special dog Kirby who will be missed by the many people who knew and loved him.

The Eagles Gather

A heart-felt "Thank You" goes out to all the people who formed the "Gathering of Eagles" yesterday in Washington, DC. to show their support for our troops and their mission in Iraq.People came from near and far to counter the anti-war crowd's own gathering the same day in DC.

Hot Air has a preview of a powerful ad produced by Move America Forward set to air nationally on Monday. Check it out.

Also see the Gathering of Eagles website for background information on the hastily but successfully planned event.

To see Cindy Sheehan at her best/worst go here.

The antiwar movement can't find anybody better than her? Her voice must turn off thousands of people and her siple rhetoric is nothing new. The poor thing is being used and when she's outlived her usefullness and finds that her fifteen minutes of fame are over, she will be even more pathetic. I almost feel sorry for her.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

If you haven't watched the British television production, "The Great Global Warming Swindle", you owe it to yourself to do so. It is approximately an hour and fifteen minutes of your time and is easily available on the internet to watch realtime or download (free). It is very eye-opening regarding the relationship between manmade carbon dioxide and temperature changes (it's not what you've been lead to believe), and the direct influence of the sun and its activies on the Earth's climate.

With the new information from astronomy telling us that it appears ice on Mars has been melting, I fail to comprehend how anthropogenic global warming could have this effect on Mars, whose distance from Earth can be as close as 35 million miles or as far as 250 million miles. But in the global warming extremists' views, there is no evil deed, no matter how remote, that man, cannot accomplish.

For great reviews of both Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and "The Great Global Warming Swindle" see this site.
Also, Thomas Sowell has some interesting comments on the BBC production as well.

"The Flying Imams"

What a stupid term. It always makes me think of the "Flying Wallendas" or the Wizard of Oz's "Flying Monkeys". But I must admit that I know exactly to which imams one is referring, the six Muslim clerics booted from a USAirways flight a few months ago due to suspicious behavior noted by other passengers on the flight. Their concern about the clerics' behavior, loud "Allahu Akbars!" while waiting at the gate, agitated appearance, angry comments about America, Osama, and Saddam, their requested seatbelt extenders put under the seats, their switching seats and the worrisome location of those seats, similar in pattern to that of the September 11 attackers, caused the flight to be delayed and the imams to be asked to leave the plane.

If I had been a passenger on that flight, I would have been relieved. The imams, however, were aggrieved, declaring their removal to be an example of racial profiling, and and religious discrimination.

There were investigations, of course, by Minneapolis police, USAirways, and Homeland Security's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, the Air Carrier Security Committee of the Air Line Pilots Association, and probably others. All investigations cleared the crew of wrongdoing in the removal of the Muslims.

So now the Council of American-Islamic Relations, is planning to sue. It may just be another attempted shakedown of a major company in the name of "diversity and tolerance", but I can't see most Americans supporting USAirways if it caves to CAIR's lawsuit. It's way past time to stop giving in to these extortion attempts.

And now a word to CAIR: you aren't going to win friends with this tactic, but you may influence people, albeit negatively. Give up this lawsuit and let it rest.

Hillary-ous Comparison

[March 11, 2007 — NASHUA, N.H. - Hillary Clinton Speaking]

“He was smart, he was dynamic, he was inspiring and he was Catholic. A lot of people back then [1960] said, ‘America will never elect a Catholic as president,’ But those who gathered here almost a half century ago knew better. They believed America was bigger than that and Americans would give Sen. John F. Kennedy a fair shake, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

"...women are "the majority" of voters and are in the workforce in "record numbers," So when people tell me 'a woman can never be president,' I say, we'll never know unless we try."

There must be a lot of Kennedy people who are rolling their eyes over this. Teddy comes to mind. In any comparison between JFK and HRC, HRC is going to come up short, and I don't mean in height.

Hillary seems to be implying that women and some men will vote for her because she is a woman, as if that were her main attribute. I don't know anybody, although I'll wager there were some, who would have said that JFK should have been elected just because he was a Roman Catholic. He was elected partly because his father did everything in his power to pull whatever strings necessary to get him the nomination, partly because Chicago Mayor Daley and others rigged the election results, and partly because Richard Nixon's makeup was terrible. He was also elected in part because he was dynamic, and inspiring, and because people liked him and agreed with his politics. He promised to bring youth and vitality to the White House after decades of having old men occupy the Oval Office. His beautiful and cosmopolitan wife and two little children also brought a breath of fresh air, although these were less than ideal qualifications for the presidency.

I don't think the Clintons have youth and vitality going for them, and she is neither dynamic nor inspiring. And I imagine the White House windows were opened wide to let in fresh air after the Clintons left in 2000.

About the only thing that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kennedy have in common is their political party. But Kennedy was hardly a Clinton democrat, especially not a Hillary democrat. Little did we know that history would show Jack Kennedy to be more "republican" than many republicans today.

One clear difference between her and JFK was in their views on national defense. Kennedy screwed up the Bay of Pigs fiasco but when push came to shove he stared down the Russians and made them remove the missiles from within easy striking distance of Florida. He didn't "dialog" Kruschev to death; he threatened the heck out of him. Hillary would have gone on a listening tour of Moscow and then invited Kruschev to "chat" a while, probably after making sure Chirac went along with it.

-----------

An afterthought: I don't know about you, but I can almost hear her saying,

"Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you."

Just a suggestion

I just read a great interview on Frontline with Dr. S.Fred Singer author of Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years. I knew the "other side" of the global warming debate would show up sooner or later. 'Bout time!

Read the interview while you can. Learn a few key parts to bring up when the next liberal fear monger starts spouting about global warming.

Here's a snippet:

(Interviewer)
Do you think, then, this is no longer operating as "normal" science, that there's some kind of pathological mechanism here?

(Dr. Singer)
I think climate science is on its way to becoming pathological, to becoming abnormal in the sense that it is being guided by the money that's being made available to people. I don't blame people for accepting money. And the people who take the money and do research, by and large, are doing very competent research. [But] you'll find them very careful not to speak out against the global warming "threat" -- I'm putting "threat" in quotes, of course. And you'll find also that when they do speak out, as many of them do, they suffer consequences. They lose support. And I can give you examples of that. Or they have other consequences that are equally disagreeable. And if you're a young professor at a university and want to get tenure, or if you want to get a permanent academic position, you must do published research. And to do published research, you must write proposals to get money to do the research. So you're locked into a vicious spiral here. You have to go along with the current wisdom that global warming is a threat. Otherwise, you're not going to get the job that you want.

Graphics credit

Random Thoughts on a Friday Evening....

Human Sacrifice in the Future?

While in the car today, listening to the news, I heard that Mayan priests plan to purify a sacred archaeological site after President Bush visits it during his trip to Guatemala next week. The Mayan people and their culture are duly offended by his presence at their holy site according to Juan Tiney, a spokesman for Mayan religious and political leaders. I wonder if the priests will follow their ancient practice of offering human sacrifice to appease any offended gods. I understand that prisoners, slaves, and even children, specially purchased for the occasion, were favored offerings. But we won't go into that.




Free Libby!!


If Libby goes to jail it will be the ultimate insult to Lady Justice. It's a good thing she's blindfolded and can't see what's going on; she might just quit her gig forever.

Here we have a man who "forgot" or "lied" about who, what, when, he was told or told about the Valerie Plame affair. It doesn't matter. There was no originating crime about "outing" her anyway or we would be seeing a trial taking place on that subject.

Now over there we have a man who stole multiple items from the National Archives, not coupons, mind you, but classified, top secret documents. He stole them, hid them, and destroyed them. And lied about it! We'll never know what information was jotted down in the margins of the multiple copies of the same document by the various Clinton people who had them in their possession. It is hard to believe that there was any other reason for the theft and destruction of these documents than to protect Clinton or others from something, if only from embarrassment. He gets the proverbial slap on the wrist. Unbelievable.

We're Sorry you're Offended.

I was trying to stay away from the "Ann Coulter-John Edwards-Faggot" brouhaha. But I can't help jumping in with my two cents worth, if it's even worth two cents. The whole thing makes me tired, so tired.

I was tired of hearing about the "F-word" the first time I heard someone reporting on Coulter's use of it in a supposed joke about the current craze of running to rehab after getting caught doing anything wrong, embarrassing or politically incorrect. I assumed the "F-word" she used was of the four letter variety. How wrong I was.

She was referring to the NEW "F-word", the one that sent "Grey's Anatomy" actor Isaiah Washington to the Apology Podium for using that slur to refer to fellow cast member. In case you've been living in a cave for the past month or so, the word is "faggot." Shhhhhhhh.

After that unfortunate occurence, ABC and other bigwigs bent over backwards to decry the use of the word faggot, which is very interesting if the following is indeed the case. Brent Bozell writes:

In fact, the networks are in federal court at this very moment, suing for the "right" to drop F-bombs on children whenever they'd like. That F-bomb is OK for national television, but it's not OK for the new F-bomb to be uttered anywhere, even on the privacy of the set, even when it's between adults.

Once again, Hollywood looks hypocritical, so high and mighty about their vaunted right to shock and offend, to push every envelope and melt every taboo, and it doesn't matter how many they offend. But in their neighborhood there are rules, they have their own list of Seven Dirty Words you can't say, their own system of censorship and their own secular sacraments of penance.

We saw this in November, when comedian Michael Richards screamed the N-word at a comedy club, recorded on a cell phone. No one would rebroadcast the offending word, even as Richards was denounced in every venue. We can applaud that and ask: So why not the same standard for the other obscenities?

It seems that Hollywood bows before the god of Diversity, and the greatest blasphemous offenses anyone can commit all lie in the minefields of racial and sexual identity politics.

So now the democrats have a new pariah, not that they've ever been fond of Ann Coulter and her the biting humor. She often cuts too close to the mark for anyone to be comfortable. They are insisting that all republican candidates run to the Apology Podium to repudiate and apologize for her remarks. But I find this just another example of their hypocrisy. They can stand idly by while their minions declare George W. Bush to be the new Hitler, the world's real terrorist, an idiot, etc., while Julia Roberts finds the word "republican" in the dictionary between "reptile" and "repulsive", Alec Baldwin wishes Henry Hyde and his family dead, and Bill Maher rues the fact that Dick Cheney wasn't blown to smithereens by an assassin's bomb. But let one republican call someone a "faggot", even indirectly, and buddy, there's hell to pay.

Jon Sanders agrees that an apology is necessary and furnishes a great one right here. He "apologizes" to Howard Dean by listing ways Coulter could have jabbed at Edward, all right-on, by the way, and ends by saying:

"In short, Coulter's remark was ugly, gratuitous, and worthless. She could have leveled far more substantial -- and entertaining -- hits on John Edwards than what she said. For that we offer our sincere apologies and hopes for greater political discourse."

As for me, I'll just say, "I'm sorry you're offended. Now bugger off. I'm tired of it."

Aunt Jemima Clinton

Hillary Clinton has a tin ear. That was my first thought when I heard clips of her recent speeches, complete with phony southern drawl, given to a black audience in Selma, Alabama, over the weekend. She recited a Black hymn and, instead of just saying the words with whatever enthusiasm she found necessary, she gave it a "Black" emphasis which was as false as her lifetime fondness for the New York Yankees.

Few of us know what our voices really sound like to others. It is always a surprise to hear ourselves when recorded on an audio media; It usually sounds funny and somewhat embarrassing to those of us not used to hearing our own public utterances come back to haunt us. But we are mere mortals. We don't have Hollywood connections. Unless the Clintons burned this one particular bridge behind them, Harry and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason should have been available to coach and cue the junior Senator from New York (via a long stint in Arkansas and a longer one in Illinois) in her delivery. She either had no coaching, or it didn't "take." Listen to some of the clips available at Youtube right here.

For the record, it seemed to me that Obama felt it necessary to accentuate his blackness with a little exaggerated speech effects. The poor guy can't be either black or white enough to suit his aspirations.

This is just another example of Hillary's calculated candidacy. From her calm, cool, and collected appearance in her tastefully appointed livingroom to announce her candidacy, and request a chat, a dialog with us, to her ranting about the war to appease her liberal base, to this pandering to the Black people in Selma, she insults the intelligence of Black and White America alike. I am offended, even if the people she panders to are not.

Gore's Other Inconvenient Truth

He payed attention. He served under the Clinton's and he payed attention. He realized that he too could make some real money after leaving office. He had already written a book, Earth in the Balance, and after his stint as a professor, beard and all, he tried his oratorial skills. Remember his rant regarding George Bush's supposed pre- 9/11 Iraq invasion plans? "He betrayed this country! He played on our fears!" Then he tried the movie business with An Inconvenient Truth which may turn out to be very inconvenient to us. He's yet to find out whether or not he'll be bringing home the Nobel Peace Prize so he's decided to become a snake-oil salesman (the Nobel Peace Prize for what? for not duking it out with GWB for the presidency?).

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Our former VP is selling the environmental equivalent of snake-oil. If we are to believe his dire warnings, we are on the brink of destroying the planet and life as we know it. The global temperature is warming, ice caps are melting, the sea level is rising, polar bears are drowning, and we all know that it is due to human activities. Well, not the activies of all humans, just those of us in western, developed countries with high employment and high productivity and a high standard of living. Let's face it. In some countries, people just don't live long enough to do much damage to the world. But we Americans, living in our nice homes, keeping warm in winter and cool in summer, eating red meat, washing with fresh, safe water daily, and flushing our toilets instead of dumping the slops out the window, have the nerve to live well into our 70's and 80's while driving our gas-guzzling SUV's thousands of miles a year. We are responsible for all the ills facing the planet. Period. No one dares to dispute this man's scientific conclusions. See this prior post.

So, what are we to do? According to Mr. Gore and others, we should do all that we can to conserve natural resources; cut back on our energy consumption; look for alternative more earth-friendly sources of energy; and once we've calculated our reduced "carbon footprint" we then should pay our penance with "carbon offsets". According to Wikipedia, the not always reliable information source, but the handiest for me at present, a "carbon offset" is:

"A service that tries to reduce the net carbon emissions of individuals or organizations indirectly, through proxies who reduce their emissions and/or increase their absorption of greenhouse gases.[1] A wide variety of offset actions are available; tree planting is the most common. Renewable energy and energy conservation offsets are also popular, including emissions trading credits.

The intended goal of carbon offsets is to combat global warming.[2] The appeal of becoming "carbon neutral" has contributed to the growth of voluntary offsets, which often are a more cost-effective alternative to reducing one's own fossil-fuel consumption. However, carbon offsets are not without controversy, with some environmentalists and economists questioning the overall benefits of the practice."

Did you get that last sentence - "with some environmentalists and economists questioning the overall benefits of the practice"? So, without clear proof that it would make much difference, we are urged to purchase these offsets, which would at least make us feel as if we were doing something to help stave off the coming crisis. For some democrats, that warm and fuzzy "feeling" is enough.

Where do you buy carbon offsets? I live in a greater metropolitan area of at least a half million people. I haven't seen the Offsets-R-US anywhere. Is it something you order online? Maybe Amazon sells them; they sell everything else these days. Let's see what Al Gore does.

For your review: Al and The Tipster have, oh, I don't know, maybe two homes. I know about the one in an exclusive fashionable Nashville suburb. You've probably seen the recent articles here and there about the size of it, a 20 room McMansion that uses 20 times the energy of a typical American home. This is according to reliable sources, in this case, the Nashville daily newspaper, The Tennessean, which obtained records from the Nashville Electric Service. There is a correspondingly large usage of natural gas, as would be expected.

When questioned about this seeming inconsistency with Al Gore's teachings about the necessity for energy conservation, Gore's spokesperson (WARNING!! from now on I'm using the word "spokesman") assured us that the Gores have switched to fluorescent bulbs, and are having solar panels installed, and have participated in a "Green Power Switch" program. I'll give him credit for putting some of his money where his mouth is . (The Tennessee Valley Authority has information here about this potential energy-saving program). In addition to that, they drive a Lexus Hybrid SUV for gasoline savings, probably somewhat offset by his trips around the world promoting himself, I mean, his movie. Sometimes, he even flies commercial airlines instead of private jets. But, just to make up for any extra carbon footprints that he and his family may be leaving around the planet, he buys carbon offsets. Lucky for him that he can afford them.

Gore's spokesman says that "Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the famiily's carbon footprint - a concept the right-wing fails to understand." He's right in a way, but I do understand the concept, I just don't understand how purchasing the offsets "offsets", compensates or atones for one's prior energy usage. The way I see it, Gore wants to continue with his conspicuous energy consumption and just buy his way out of his guilty conscience. He still is using enough energy to drive up the price for the rest of us so that we can't buy "offsets" even if we know where to find them.

So where in the world does Gore go to salve his conscience? It turns out that he buys his offsets through a company called Generation Investment Management. (GIM) Coincidentally, he is one of the founders and serves as chairman. This information is readily available at the company's website, above. GIM invests some of its money in sources of alternative energy and other projects that aim to lower energy use worldwide.

In other words, GIM is an international investment firm, not an alternative energy producer, supplier, or even a tree-planting company as one might assume. So, Gore invests in his own company, urges others to do the same, and probably will benefit financially as the practice becomes more widespread among his fellow guilt-ridden liberals.

By the way, you can check the financial holdings (as of DEc. 31, 2006)of GIM at this SEC site. I spent an hour or so looking up each company listed in the report. Some of the holdings are what you might expect:

Johnson Controls - Batteries for hybrid vehicles
Metabolix, Inc.- "Greener" plastics and chemicals
Waters Corp. - Safer water, food, healthcare products
Whole Foods - Natural, organic food retailer

Others are interesting:

Laboratory Corp. - genomic testing, diagnostic technology
Aquantive - Digital marketing
Techne Corp. - Medical research
VCA Antech - Pet healthcare systems
Sysco - Food Service
Staples - Office supply superstores
General Electric - Variety of industries
Becton Dickinson - Medical technology
Autodesk - 2D and 3D design software
Aflac - Insurance

And still others are very interesting:

Greenhill and Co.- Investment banking
Blackbaud - Fundraising software and management
Northern Trust - Financial, investment services
Nuveen - Investment management
UBS - Global financial services

Of the nineteen companies listed in the SEC report, four seem to be directly involved in some sort of energy saving/resource providing activities. Ten are in a variety of industries, and five are in the financial/investment business. GIM's stated goal is to "buy high quality businesses and management teams whose securities are attractively priced to deliver excess returns over the long-term."

Especially if the four "green" companies are successful, Gore and the other GIM investors stand to make a lot of money. That is all well and good, but he should be chastised for pretending to be "greener" than he really is. After all, he is taking money from one pocket and putting it in another, and that's just another example of the limousine liberals recurring con-games.

In fact, Gore is the one who is truly playing on our fears.